As the eight-day Spring Festival holiday gets underway, anticipation mounts for new records in both travel volumes and box office revenues. The festival is set to end on February 17.

Tens of millions of railway passenger trips

Chinese railways witnessed nearly 12.93 million passenger trips on Tuesday, with an estimated 14.2 million expected on Wednesday, according to the China State Railway Group (CSRG), the nation's railway operator.

According to the CSRG's passenger department, daily ridership has consistently exceeded 10 million for two consecutive days, driven by various factors such as tourism, familial visits, and the return of people to their homes.

Additionally, the passenger flows to popular cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Hangzhou and Shenzhen significantly increased on Wednesday, surpassing the peak of passenger flows before the Spring Festival, as indicated by presale tickets on China's official railway ticket-booking website, 12306.cn.

In terms of data for applying for standby train tickets on 12306.cn, Guangzhou and Shenzhen became the most popular destinations on Wednesday, while Harbin and Wuhan became the most popular departure cities for the third consecutive day.